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Senior siblings oldest ‘new arrivals’ on hospital’s baby wall

Burnaby-raised brother and sister stake claim to commemorative tiles at Royal Columbian

When the Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation launched a fundraising campaign selling commemorative plaques for babies born in its maternity ward, it likely had recent new arrivals in mind. But Burnaby-raised Roy Brainerd, 84, has made sure he and his sister Pat White, 81, will be represented on the walls of the hospital where the senior siblings were born more than eight decades ago.

METRO VANCOUVER -- In the 1930s, when Pat White was still Pat Brainerd, she and her brother Roy lived in a home in Burnaby heated only by a wood-burning furnace. On winter mornings, she’d stand over the single furnace vent upstairs, hogging all the heat while the others shivered until finally her older brother shooed her away.

White was the baby of the family’s four kids; today, the 81-year-old admits she still gets special treatment.

That’s why, despite the fact the family stopped exchanging gifts at Christmas long ago, her big brother Roy Brainerd couldn’t resist when he saw an ad for commemorative tiles bearing the names and birthdates of new babies born in the Royal Columbian maternity wards. He and White were born there, he on March 2, 1928, and she on May 15, 1931. Of course staff were a little surprised when the 84-year-old went to purchase the plaques, which had been intended for much newer arrivals.

“We’re the oldest new babies,” said Brainerd.

His gift is part of a new fundraising campaign initiated by hospital staff in a bid to raise money for the Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation. Entire walls in the maternity and neonatal intensive care units will one day be decorated by painted tiles bearing the names and birthdates of once-new arrivals.

The tiles were designed by a Swedish artist living in Vancouver, Issie Heikkila, who created six different versions. They sell for between $100 and $250 each, depending on size. The Brainerds’ tiles feature cats sitting in teacups.

So far the foundations has raised $4,931 since the program launched in October during the hospital’s 150th anniversary celebrations. The goal is to raise around $12,000 a year, until they run out of space.

“I thought, well, that’s a good deal. I’ll put my name in and my sister’s name in,” said the ever-practical Brainerd. “I’m a donor anyway and I like to help the hospital. I donate here and I donate to the Burnaby hospital on a monthly basis,” he said. “I didn’t think they wanted old people, but anyway, they’ll take the money.”

“He’s the rich one,” White joked, adding she was a little surprised at the gift. “I thought it was pretty nice. And it’s a good cause,” she said.

The Brainerd siblings spent most of their lives in the Lower Mainland. She has three sons, he has three daughters — one of whom was also born at Royal Columbian and also received a plaque. White has 10 grandkids while Brainerd has seven. There are 10 great-grandchildren between them.

The pair grew up in central Burnaby near Harwood Park with two older step-siblings, now deceased. White and Brainerd can still recall walking up the five steep kilometres to Burnaby South high school together through Deer Lake Park in the 1940s. White became a telegraph operator before she married and stayed at home to raise her children. Brainerd left school at 15 to work for Snap-On Tools, working his way up from pushing a broom to becoming a branch manager. He retired in 1983 after 41 years.

White and her husband Larry, a retired Vancouver firefighter, moved to Langley in the 1980s, around the same time Roy Brainerd moved to the Crest area of Burnaby, where he and wife Carol still live. The four have all maintained their health and youthful good humour and they’re still close, getting together once a month to have dinner and play a rousing round of Wizard, a euchre-like card game.

White described herself as mouthy, and her brother as a pain in the neck. He responded by calling her a baby.

When the Royal Columbian Hospital Foundation launched a fundraising campaign selling commemorative plaques for babies born in its maternity ward, it likely had recent new arrivals in mind. But Burnaby-raised Roy Brainerd, 84, has made sure he and his sister Pat White, 81, will be represented on the walls of the hospital where the senior siblings were born more than eight decades ago.

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